Am I really responsible for paying the costs of my landlord's mistake?

Factual Questions
1

I and my wife rent an apartment in a large townhouse in Montgomery county in Pennsylvania. The apartment is heated by natural gas (the type of heating in which a gas furnace heats air which then streams into the living area through vents).

Each apartment in the building has its own, separate gas furnace in the basement. Each tenant pays for his or her gas consumption. There are two apartments in the building.

A few days ago, I noticed a vent in the basement. Closer examination revealed that hot air was streaming out of this vent, and that it was coming from the furnace for “our” apartment. In other words, I and my wife have been paying to heat the basement! The basement is a common area used for storage and the lease says nothing about us being responsible for heating this area.

Given that we have lived in this apartment for 3 years, and have paid well over $1,000 in heating costs during that period, I am not happy about this. During this time I and my wife have added insulating strips to the windows and doors and we have been careful to turn down the heat during nighttime and when we were out, because the heating costs had always seemed a bit on the high side to us and we were trying to save some money. To add insult to injury, the amount of hot air being pushed out through the basement vent was significant; the airflow through this basement vent was much higher than that through any of the five vents in our apartment. I would estimate that about one third of all hot air must have been pushed into the basement.

When I brought this to the attention of the landlord, his attitude was a shrug and “that is the sort of thing that can happen” (he did not use those exact words, but that was his attitude). He said that the basement vent was unintentional, and he promptly had a contractor cover up the vent, but his opinion was that we were responsible for the heating costs.

This does not seem right to me. We have been good tenants and we have been taking good care of the apartment over these years, often doing minor repairs ourselves so as not to bother the landlord needlessly.

What should we do? What do the Pennsylvania landlord-tenant statutes say about this?

PS. I should mention that I do believe that the basement vent was unintentional. It did not have a proper vent cover or “grill” or whatever the correct term is. It seems like the landlord, or some contractor, simply forgot to seal this opening. Nevertheless, I and my wife are the ones who have been picking up the tab for this mistake. So, what should we do?

2

My vote: Nothing.

What can you do? They corrected the situation as you brought it to their attention & there isn’t any way you could prove how much it cost you heating the basement.

$1000 for three years of heating isn’t that much.

3

Really, since the thermostat is actually in your living space, and you control the temperature, the vent in the basement is not going to make a real significant difference in your bill.

It is something that you should monitor now that you know there is a vent in the system not under your control. You should also be changing the filter to your furnace on a regular schedual. That alone will make a big difference in your heating costs.

4

It being xmas, I suggest we give bare an opportunity to think that one through and repost before we point out a few things…

I will start (before I make an attempt at answering the OP) by saying I know nothing about tenancy law in your jurisdiction.

That said, it seems to me that the starting point is going to be: whose obligation it is to maintain your furnace and ducts? Yours or your landlord’s? If it’s your landlord’s, you may have some legal grounds for claiming the extra cost of heating (whatever that amounts to, which wouldn’t be easy to calculate) over the years. Of course, the amount involved is going to be comparatively small, and probably reasonably unrecoverable if he won’t pay voluntarily.

5

Why, thank you for enlightening me there Princhester. Since it’s been three hours and no one else has stepped forward, why don’t you just assume the royal “we” and explain my error to me in plain language.

6

No, you shouldn’t have been responsible. But figuring it out now would be difficult at best.

7

Princhester, I just took a close look at the signed lease and it says nothing about maintenance of the furnace and the ducts.

However, my examination of the lease revealed that heat is actually supposed to be included in the rent. Under the heading “Affirmative Covenants of Lessor:” “(a) Lessor agrees to furnish a reasonable amount of heat commencing not before the first day of October, and continuing not later than the first day of May, following, and to furnish hot and cold water during the continuance of this lease or any renewal thereof, without extra charge.”

However, further down, under “Affirmative Covenants of Lessee,” the following somewhat contradictory statement is given: “Lessee covenants and agrees that he will without demand: … (g) Promptly pay for all gas and electricity consumed in the herein demised premises during the continuance of this lease; and should Lessee fail to make these payments when due, Lessor shall have the right to settle therefor. Such sums shall be considered additional rent and collectible from Lessee, as such, by legal process, and to have all the priorities given by law to claims for rent.”

Well, this leaves me scratching my head. Are we or are we not responsible for the heating cost, according to the lease?

To be honest, our understanding was all along that I and my wife would pay for the heating. However, what does the lease actually mandate? It seems ambiguous to me. Regarding consuming gas “in” the premises, I should mention that gas is used for cooking.

Now, from an ethical viewpoint, I am not sure what to do. I am leaning towards forgetting the whole thing, this being Christmas and all. My OP was prompted by what I felt was the landlord’s flippant attitude–especially given our previous attempts at improving the energy efficiency of the apartment, attempts that the landlord was well aware of.

Can anyone clarify what the lease means?

8

Heat that is pouring out into an unused room is a waste of enery. Energy that Jonas is paying for. By your reasoning, there would be no “significant difference” if the vent in question was dumping heat out onto the street, or if Jonas’ furnace was heating all the other apartments in the building in addition to his own.

Put another way, if Jonas and his neighbor both set their thermostats at 70º, Jonas’ furnace is going to be running longer than his neighbor’s because he’s getting less heat in his apartment. It’s an efficiency thing.

Happy Christmas :slight_smile:

9

The lease does seems to contradict itself (unless the latter clause is preceded by language that says that this clause overrides any previous clauses), but what would matter if you took this to court is what you and the landlord believed it meant. This is what “good faith” is about in contract law. If you enter an agreement but there is some type of error in the agreement itself, such as in your case, the courts will tend to enforce what the parties involved believed the contract was supposed to say, rather than what it literally says.

So if the landlord told you that you had to pay for the heat, and you signed the lease with the understanding that you had to pay for the heat, you will have a difficult time convincing a court that you should not have to pay for the heat.

10

It seems to me that the landlord has to provide heat (make available to you), It doesn’t mean he must pay for it, just have it there for you to use (he can’t sell you an apartment that has no heating system during those months). The 2nd part looks like you must pay for the heat you use.

It was (seems to be) an honest mistake but then again faulty ductwork has cost you a tity sum over the years. You sayt he ductwork was in a common area - who is responsible for maintance/repairs in this area? I would say that is who should pay for the heat.

11

OK, that makes sense.

For the sake of clarity, let me say that I was NOT planning on going to court over this. I agree that it is a minor grievance and that going to court would be neither worthwhile nor honorable.

I do feel somewhat shortchanged and I did wonder what the law said, but my questions were mainly intended to satisfy my own curiosity.

k2dave, the ductwork and the furnaces are located in the basement, which is a common area not covered by or referred to by the lease. It thus seems that maintencance and repairs in this area would be the landlord’s responsibility.

OK, so the common opinion seems to be that the landlord may be respsonsible for the excess heating cost caused by the faulty ductwork, but that it would be hard to put a monetary value on this and that the matter is not worth pursuing? Well, I agree. That was what I sort of figured.

k2dave, mattgg, Attrayant, Hastur, Princhester, bare, handy - thanks for your responses! The SDMB is truly great!

12

Since the landlord provides means to supply heat to your apartment, it must also follow that the maintenance is the landlords responsibility.

You would have to find out if you had any recourse to consequent costs due to failure of said maintenance, perhaps local rent tribunals can help you.

There should be a demonstrable schedule of inspection and maintenance, not merely waiting for something to go wrong. So many people have died in the past from faulty installations that there will be some sort of city legislation governing this. If this defect has not been spotted for over a year it would be pretty damning.

If you get on with your neighbors you cold try find out the sort of sums they have been paying for heating, or the number of units they have used.
Your other way would be to compare fuel bills year on year for the same period and compare the number of units used.

This would give you something to work with.

$1000 may not seem too much, but the costs will be concentrated far more into the cold months and so the savings might well be significant.(If you have been trying to save energy in the ways you mention, then my guess is that such financial loss might well matter to you)

If you withheld a portion of your rent equal to the value you can show you lost due to that bad maintenance, it would probably not be in the landlords interest to persue it, especially if you can provide figures, and moreso if there is no record of maintenance.

Go for the friendly approach to the landlord first, showing the figures and try to come to an arrangement before doing this.

13

Jonas again you probably need local advice, but again, having given you that warning. the position seems to me to be tolerably clear.

As others have said, there is no contradiction. The landlord must supply the heat, you must pay for what you use.

The key to this situation is in the clause you have quoted.

You must:

You have quite clearly been paying for gas that was not consumed in the demised premises, but by heating the basement.

Your landlord has been overcharging you for gas used to heat the premises.

Unless there is something tricky in your local law, or some other relevant term of the lease, I would say that at least theoretically, it is game set and match to Jonah.

14

How is the basement temp now? Just curious.

Worse then just blowing your (paid for) hot air into the basement, ths condition was most likley creating a partial vacuum in your apartment, some of the air was most likely comming from the pressurized basement but some from outside.

I’d say you got screwed and should try to get your money back.

15

I don’t know if I was clear enough. The system draws in air from your apartment, heats it and returns it to your apartment. But soem of the return air was being siphoned off so you were getting more air removed then replaced in your apartment. This air has to be replaced somehow so you are most likley drawing cold air from the outside.

Such a condition could double your heating bill.

16

Let me put this in more practical terms:

Let’s be generous and say half your power bill over 3 years went to heat the basement. So you’re out $500.

For one thing, forget about hiring a lawyer for this. It’s just not worth it. So find out whther $500 is a small enough amount to file in small claims court. It’s the only avenue worth pursuing. Basically, walk in, make a statement to the judge, present a copy of the lease, and wait for a decision.

Before you do this, think about whether you want to get into an adversarial relationship over what clearly seems to be an oversight? Do small problems get fixed promptly? If they do now, they might not after a lawsuit, if you catch my drift.

17

Well he already said

so I don’t think you need to worry about all that.

18

Thanks for all your replies! You guys are great.

Well, I think I will speak to the landlord about this, make my case, and in a non-threating and friendly way ask for a refund of part of my heating costs. If he refuses to consider a refund, I will probably drop the matter. It does not seem worth getting into a legal fight over this.

It does seem colder. It used to be rather comfortable down there even when it was freezing outside, but now the basement feels rather chilly. However, its not as if I’ve been keeping a temperature log for the basement over the years, so I can’t really prove anything.

19

The tough moment will come when the judge says, “Explain to me precisely how you determined that $500 of your heating expenses went towards heating the basement.” So, before you go to small claims court, you’ll need to hire an HVAC consultant to perform various heat loss tests on your apartment and on the basement, etc., etc. Shouldn’t set you back more than a few grand. :smiley:

20

Before I speak to the landlord, I am trying to gather as much exact information as possible. I went through each gas bill from the past 36 months (we moved into the apartment in December 1999). It turns out that my initial estimate of $1,000 in heating costs was much too low (I had arrived at that figure from a back-of-the envelope calculation, extrapolating from only 3 months).

In total, we have been billed for 272,100 cubic feet of gas (2721 CCF), or 907 CCF per year. The total charge for this was $2,700.46. Subtracting out the fixed $7.20 monthly customer fee (which I would have had to pay regardless of the amount of gas used), and excluding about 2 CCF per month that we seem to have used for cooking (judging from the gas consumption during the hot summer months), I arrive at 883 CCF per year for heating through the furnace*, or $811.30 per year. That is for a 770 square feet apartment.

I have no idea what a “reasonable” annual gas consumption for heating should be. Does 883 CCF per year and $811 seem high for a 770 square feet apartment?

This is in southeastern Pennsylvania. The unit price for gas has varied from $0.65 per CCF to $1.14 per CCF. Right now it is $0.86 per CCF (including distribution charges, “gas cost adjustment” charges and “gas transition” surcharges).

*Let’s avoid discussions of how the cooking contributes to the heating, shall we? I’d rather not get into a scientific discussion with the landlord.